I don't think you're familiar with some of the features that 7H can do to say that Dan's mod manager will replace it. The biggest one is allowing any mod (textures, models, scripts, etc) to activate and deactivate at any point throughout a playthough.

I have to see Dan's finished work before I can pass any decision on it, but from what I understand from his posts, he is only aiming at managing completed mods that he knows can work together. Dan also has a very precise vision of how he wants the game to be, so his finished project may not be what everyone is looking for. 7H was always meant to combine any mods you want with a simple push of button, but of course with this amount of freedom also comes inconsistencies with mod compatibility and gameplay experience (mismatched textures, models, sound, etc). Dan's work will probably end up being a foundation to start with, while 7H can supplement it with smaller individual mods.

I don't think many are going to join in on the discussion tbh. In the past, we've spent numerous amounts of time discussing ideas...or basically "what ifs" only to have the project fall short due to developer fallout. 7H has been a project long overdue for an update, so let's just leave it at that to agree upon and get working on it. We can post updates as we go along and leave the discussion for after the work is done

Root is missing just means your profile is trying to load something that isn't there. Check your [gamedir]\mods\7th Heaven folder to see what is downloaded correctly. If you see temp folder, that means 7H couldn't complete a download and stored the incomplete download in that folder. You can delete them and restart 7H to attempt the download again.